Webutuck students get inventive  at virtual STEAM Fair
Though their projects weren’t judged at the fair, STEAM Fair participants from Webutuck Elementary School were rewarded with fun prizes for their hard work and creativity. Photo courtesy of Webutuck STEAM Fair Google Site

Webutuck students get inventive at virtual STEAM Fair

WEBUTUCK — Students were just as resourceful this year in demonstrating their creativity and investigation of the world around them as they’ve been in previous years as they submitted their projects, inventions and demonstrations to this year’s virtual STEAM Fair.

Sponsored by the Webutuck Teachers’ Association with support from the Civil Service Employee Association (CSEA) and the Webutuck PTA, this year marks the seventh annual STEAM Fair, and thus far its first (and hopefully only) virtual one due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As part of turning the fair into “an entirely online event,” Danielle Fridstrom, a science teacher at Webutuck High School (WHS) and co-chair of this year’s fair, set up a “2021 Webutuck STEAM Fair” Google site where students could submit their projects.

A total of 20 projects and 23 participants in kindergarten through 12th grade participated. Out of those, 12 projects were completed by students in grades sixth through 12th and were judged by eight Webutuck staff and retired staff volunteers. The remaining eight projects were submitted by students in kindergarten through fourth grade and were not judged, though the fair featured five staff volunteer “commentators” charged with giving encouraging feedback.

Christine Gillette, a science teacher at EBIS and co-chair of the fair, acknowledged  parents struggled with the technology as they helped their children upload their videos and projects on their iPads to the Google site. Fortunately, Gillette said, “Danielle was great about providing tech support and how-to videos, so we actually set up a Google Classroom for STEAM Fair participants where they could drop their projects off.”

More people could view the projects online this year, as the fair took place over a week instead of a single day.

“The event wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors, the science department, our volunteer judges and commentators, support from the parents, and, most of all, the kids that stepped up to do STEAM projects during this unusual time in education,” Gillette said.

The projects went “live” on Monday, Feb. 22, and were judged through Sunday, Feb. 28. The winners were officially announced on Friday, March 5. In addition to the standard first-, second- and third-place winners, this year’s fair included a line-up of unique awards, all of which featured fun prizes. Meanwhile, all 10 participants from Webutuck Elementary School (kindergarten through fourth grade) received $20 gift certificates from Oblong Books & Music in Millerton.

For her Short Term Memory and Its Effect on Eyewitness Testimonies project, Samantha Meehan, a junior at WHS, won first place, followed by EBIS seventh-grader Carlos Franco Sub in second place with Swift Corrosion and EBIS seventh-grader Abigail McEnroe in third place with Do Different Types of Salt Affect the Homemade Ice Cream Process? An eighth-grader at EBIS, Landen Elliott, won the People’s Choice Award for his project, The Potato Launcher.

A fourth-grader at EBIS, Nolan Howard won the MacGyver Award with Electromagnetic Railroad while Garrett Yeno, a sophomore at WHS, won the Innovation Award for Why You Should Learn Programming. Hailey Brennan, a sixth-grader at EBIS, was awarded the Visual Communication Award for Melanin & Rabbit Fur Color while McKenna Tanner, a sophomore at WHS, won the Fauci Award for How COVID-19 Has Affected Society.

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